Lam San Agricultural Cooperative pursues organic farming and agro-forestry to adapt to climate change, reduce emissions, and aim to sell carbon credits.
Green organic pepper in the midst of drought
Many times I met Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan, Director of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative at seminars on organic agricultural production, and found him making very enthusiastic statements. That prompted us to go to Lam San Agricultural Cooperative (hamlet 2, Lam San commune, Cam My district, Dong Nai province) to better understand people who are always concerned about organic farming.
At the beginning of the story, Mr. Luan shared: From understanding the European market demand for safe, traceable pepper as well as increasing income for farmers by reducing intermediaries, improving high quality pepper, in 2014, the model of connecting farmers with the market through the form of production groups was formed with the establishment of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative.
“Farmers often come to me to discuss experiences, organic agricultural production techniques, and combined agro-forestry models. Sometimes, I also find farmers to share farming techniques.
Previously, when pepper prices were low, I told farmers to just grow pepper, but many people said I was crazy. In fact, I look at it from a market perspective, there are still many farmers who only look at the price, so the pepper growing area is increasingly narrowing,” Mr. Luan said, adding that with 1,000 members, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative initially has a total area of up to 1,000 hectares of pepper, but now only less than 400 hectares remain, of which only 16 hectares are cultivated to meet organic standards.
Understanding that the farming system has a close relationship between soil – water – crops will help farmers keep gardens with stable, long-term productivity without using a lot of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Mr. Luan develops economical irrigation systems, drip irrigation and transfers techniques to farmers. Thereby, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative has the highest proportion of pepper gardens with economical irrigation systems and drip irrigation systems in Vietnam today. This is the most optimal method to reduce water loss, save energy and combat climate change.
Thanks to the funding from the People’s Committee of Dong Nai province to implement a large field project, farmer households participating in pepper production with Lam San Agricultural Cooperative are supported with 30% of the cost of installing an economical irrigation system ( including conventional farming as well as organic farming). To date, this project has supported over 6.6 billion VND for farmers.
According to Mr. Luan, farmers know how to organize production and farming according to organic standards, without confusing the “organic direction”, and if the products are of good quality, they do not have to worry about lack of output. Organic pepper cooperatives account for 80% of total exported organic pepper output. And even at Lam San Agricultural Cooperative, it still ensures to buy pepper products for farmers if the pepper is of good quality.
“Organic farming means not using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, preservatives, or synthetic chemical additives; antibiotics, genetically modified organisms, growth hormones.
The importance of organic agriculture is to create soil fertility, protect land resources, create a biodiversity ecosystem, adapt to climate change and protect human health.
To do so, we must link farmers together to share scientific knowledge and farming knowledge, not simply buy – sell and market. Lam San farmers come together to share experiences and failures to become better,” Mr. Luan said.
Also according to Mr. Luan, since its establishment, the cooperative has supported farmers to export about 4,500 tons of pepper directly to the European, Japanese, Chinese and Korean markets, bringing high income to the farmers. cousin.
The difference between organically grown pepper in the form of agro-forestry versus conventional farming methods. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.
According to Mr. Truong Dinh Ba, Chairman of Lam San Commune Farmers’ Association, for many years now, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative has signed an association contract with Lam San Pepper Cooperative Group, sharing knowledge, markets and packaging. Sell all pepper products to farmers of the Cooperative Group at market prices.
“In addition to paying the market price, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative also gives an additional bonus of 4,000 VND/kg of pepper (previously when pepper prices were high, the bonus was 10,000 VND/kg) to farmers. This is a cooperative that shares profits with farmers when participating in the association,” Mr. Ba said.
Taking ecological science applied to agriculture
If we just said it, we might not believe it, but in fact, when we saw with our own eyes the green organic pepper pillars growing in the drought of the Southeast, we clearly realized the difference of farming according to the traditional method. This organic, agro-forestry method. This is one of the first two pepper gardens to receive organic certification of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative issued by the international certification organization CERES-Cert (Germany).
In the midst of the harsh sun in May, Mr. Luan’s 3.5 hectare organic pepper garden intercropped with grapefruit, cashew, cocoa, and banana is still lush and green, completely different from the two neighboring pepper gardens (one garden was exhausted due to darkening). Excessive cultivation; 1 lush garden, but yellow leaves due to heat and overwatering).
Organic pepper gardens are produced in the form of agro-forestry combined with a variety of plants, multi-layered, multi-canopy, creating biodiversity. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.
According to Mr. Luan, clearly aware of the issue of climate change, from the beginning, he determined to do organic agriculture, a combined agro-forestry model. This model is suitable for farming in the Southeast and Central Highlands, especially for small households.
When the temperature is high and the sunlight is too intense, the roots are not strong enough. Even if there is enough water for irrigation, if cultivated normally, the tree will still be exhausted and cannot grow well.
By cultivating according to organic and agro-forestry standards, different layers of leaves will be created, then the upper layer of leaves (forest trees) will block the light for the lower layer of trees (pepper). At Lam San Agricultural Cooperative, households are guided to practice redesigning the farming system, keeping soil and crop density in ecological balance, creating appropriate lighting, and ensuring nutrition. and helps soil microorganisms grow.
The basic principle to restore soil fertility is to apply organic fertilizer and create a drainage environment around the root zone so that soil microorganisms can develop well. A healthy soil environment will limit diseases caused by Phytophthora fungus. The cooperative grows pepper in combination with raising goats, taking advantage of by-products and manure to compost as organic fertilizer for pepper plants. Increase the efficiency of land, water and nutrient use by diversifying crops and combining agro-forestry farming, installing economical irrigation systems combined with fertilization.
“Organic is the standard, ecology is the principles, we apply the principles of ecological science to agriculture. There is no common process for all farmers. Therefore, for each different household, we will have a way to guide them on how to farm according to organic standards, suitable to the ecology of their garden. Mr. A’s process cannot be applied to Mr. B,” Mr. Luan analyzed.
Thanks to organic farming in the form of combined agro-forestry, the soil microflora is very developed, the soil is always fertile and retains moisture well. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.
According to the Director of Lam San Agricultural Cooperative, more importantly, in the future, not only will gardens grown using this method reduce net emissions to zero, but it will also increase the level of CO2 absorption from the atmosphere. From there, you can confidently certify and sell carbon credits to the market.
“Therefore, it is very necessary for the association of farmer households and especially the support and support from the Dong Nai provincial government in general and local authorities in particular to deploy the combined agro-forestry model on the area. about 300 – 500 hectares in Lam San”, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan said and added that the cooperative is currently cooperating with the non-governmental organization Helvetas (Switzerland) to evaluate and compare CO2 emissions between agricultural and agricultural farming. Combined forestry and local conventional farming aims to standardize farming processes, aiming to reduce emissions. At the same time, Lam San Agricultural Cooperative is also looking for potential investors to make carbon certificates according to Vera and Gold Standands standards.
“The global pepper market size is valued at 5.43 billion USD, forecast to grow on average more than 20% in the period 2024 – 2032.
This is the time when farmers should grow pepper again, combining organic farming and agro-forestry. Try to develop and maintain the national pepper output by 2030 to about 300,000 tons to return to the golden age of pepper export after a long period of deep decline in both output, area and price”, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Luan said.
The agricultural sector of Dong Nai province determines that by 2025, it will form areas producing organic agricultural products, creating a source of high quality agricultural products, ensuring food safety and hygiene for consumers, and ensuring food hygiene and safety for consumers. certified to meet domestic, regional and world organic agriculture standards. Form production chains associated with the consumption of organic agricultural products to meet domestic and export demand.
According to Nongnghiep.vn
